Growth On The Job With Medical Missionaries 

 By

Anand Habib

Medical Missionaries Global Health Fellow

The last couple of months have been some of the most challenging of our lives. At the end of August, Saskia Guerrier and I took on the role of interim clinic managers at St. Joseph’s Clinic. Initially, we were overwhelmed with the various new responsibilities that we found on our plate – from trying to convince clinic staff members to sign their contracts, to preparing monthly reports, to handling all of the clinic finances, to running staff meetings, to liaising with other NGOs in the area. The list goes on.

Since the CTC was constructed, we’ve seen a dramatic decline in the number of deaths from cholera among those seeking care here. The first week that Saskia and I arrived at the Clinic in June 2011, there were five deaths in the cholera ward (formerly situated in the new wing of the clinic) – a rough beginning to our year here. Since the CTC was built some four months ago, there have only been seven deaths. Still for a disease that is fairly easily treated, seven is too many.

While for the most part the CTC has been a self-sustaining, semi-autonomous unit of the clinic, there have been issues. The heavy rains characteristic of the rainy season brought with them periodic upticks in the number of cholera cases. As the graphic below shows, one such rise in cholera cases occurred in late September and early October.

          Support for the CTC comes from the World Bank, through their prime contractor, World Vision.  Negotiations with World Vision over the specifics of their support of the CTC had been going slowly at that time and with supplies running low in the CTC, we saw a string of deaths. One of the lessons that I have learned in my time in Thomassique is the need to be resourceful even when resources are seemingly difficult to come by. Faced with an overflowing CTC and short on supplies, we reached out to Sean Penn’s organization J/P HRO, who from the beginning of the cholera epidemic has been invaluable in assisting us. Within days J/P HRO approved a donation of over a hundred cases of IV solution as well as gloves, oral rehydration solution, hygiene kits, and other incidental supplies. When transportation posed an issue, we called in favors from Partners in Health Cerca La Source, who sent one of their trucks to pick up the donation on our behalf. We are eternally grateful for these organizations’ generosity especially when we needed their help most.

            With a seemingly endless list of administrative tasks, we have not had much time to focus on the public health projects that we initially had hoped to strengthen during our time in Thomassique. One initiative we have attempted to start is the provision of health education to those kids in our work-study program. In mid October, we held a short 30 minute health education presentation about the importance of brushing one’s teeth which included a 10 minute video with catchy songs performed by a group under the name “Better Health for Haiti.”

         The kids found the session entertaining and informative. To encourage good oral hygiene practices, we gave each a toothbrush along with toothpaste, which as you can tell, made everyone want to show us their beautiful smiles.

          While difficult in some ways, the last several months have been an incredible learning experience and time for personal growth as well. We look forward to seeing what the next several months have in store!

  You Can Help Medical Missionaries: Donate now to support our clinic or health related projects;  Form a Medical Missionaries Chapter in your area;  Volunteer to help in the U.S. or abroad.